Stay
by jakela
Summary: John wants Joss to spend the night - will she stay?
1. Chapter 1

**Stay**

"Stay," Reese whispered, his gray-blue eyes imploring.

Joss tensed. Immediately, he realized his mistake– if he didn't change the mood quickly, she'd be out of his apartment so fast, the US Olympic Track and Field team would draft her for the next games.

They'd become lovers a few months ago, at first sharing out of the way hotel rooms, the back seat of her police cruiser and one very memorable time on the back of the Ducati, but now he had an apartment, Taylor was away for the week and he wanted her to stay over. For the past three nights, Joss had come up with some bullshit excuse about why she couldn't stay – a desperately needed telephone number posted on her refrigerator, an envelope she forgot to mail, long lost dry cleaning that needed to be picked up – stuff that was so lame, if he wasn't so angry with her, he would have laughed in her face at how bad the excuses were.

Thank God you're on the right side on the law Joss, he thought - you couldn't lie your way out of a paper bag.

Part of why he wanted her to stay was purely physical. She was in his dreams now, almost every night, chasing away some of the nightmares like an avenging angel. He'd wake up with a raging hard on, and thought of having her around his cock instead of his hand made him dizzy with need.

The other part wanted her to stay to prove that he, the two of them together, mattered to her. He wasn't under the illusion that this would last –she'd told him the first time "don't make this more than it is" – and he knew she meant it. But if she stayed, just one night, after the numbers and the bantering and the gunplay and the sex, they would lie in the dark and talk, and maybe start to become friends.

And that could last, even after everything else ended.

He leapt out of bed, shamelessly hoping she was watching his naked body, and crossed the room to the open kitchen. Smirking, he said, "You have to stay. I have bagels." He held up a bag, surreptitiously checking for mold.

Joss grimaced at him. "John, how long have those bagels been sitting on your counter – they're probably hard as rocks!"

"Well, you know how Finch feels about guns – maybe we can throw bagels at the bad guys instead."

Joss sat up, laughing, "I can see the headlines now - _Killer 'Lox-ed' Up, Murderer Creamed by a Bagel - _film at eleven." she said in her best television anchor voice.

Tonight the sheets were a dark red – his breath caught when he saw how they highlighted her skin. She _had_ to stay.

"Besides, Finch has stocked this place with every appliance known to man. I need someone to help me figure out this coffee maker – I bet you were the smartest kid in class."

"Yeah, they used to call me Cookbook Carter – I always followed instructions. Nobody was surprised when I became a cop," she glanced at the clock, stifling a yawn.

"Come on, Joss – I even saved the instruction manual for you," he tossed it on her lap, sliding back into bed with her.

"Wow, this does everything except harvest the beans," Joss mused as she flipped through the pages. "You know, I bet the instructions in the other languages are just as bad as the ones in English."

He gathered her in his arms. "Maybe the next Miss America can hope for clearer instruction manuals, instead of world peace – one way to bring everyone together."

"Hmmm," she said, swallowing another yawn, "It might be worth it to help you figure this out, to actually see you take direction from someone."

He kissed her. "I take direction very well – the words 'harder', 'faster' and 'deeper' earlier this evening come to mind."

She smirked at him. "But I can't tell anybody about that. Telling Fusco that I directed you on how to use a coffee maker…"

"He wouldn't believe you."

They stayed that way for a while, whispering about silly things until her deep even breathing told him she'd fallen asleep.

Barely daring to move, he stretched out two fingers and shut the light off. A driving rain blocked the sounds of the city, cocooning them in the darkness. He closed his eyes and fell into a deep dreamless slumber.


	2. Chapter 2

The morning dawned cool and clear, last night's rain clearing all the mugginess and humidity of the last several days.

"Whattimeisit?" Joss mumbled. Her voice was heavy with sleep.

"A little after 5," Reese caressed her cheek.

She opened her eyes, slowly. "I stayed," she said.

"Yes," he nodded.

He saw something flash across her face, small and secret, but so strong and pure it humbled him. She could hide it under the numbers and the bantering and the gunplay and the sex, but here in the clear morning light he caught a glimpse of it. Their eyes met and she knew that he'd seen it.

"Don't make this more than it is," she whispered.

"I never have," he lied.

She shifted and there was a crackling noise. "What the –"reaching underneath her hip she pulled out the twisted and wrinkled coffee maker manual. Fully awake now, she pushed him on his back, running her hands down to his throbbing cock. "What's the story, morning glory?"

He groaned under her sure touch "Morning glory?"

She kissed him – she was the old Joss again, strong, confident and in control. "You know, everybody has a relative – a crazy aunt or uncle that the kids adore, but the adults are scandalized by? In my family it's Aunt Cecelia – I'd ask her all the questions about boys and sex that my mom was too uptight to talk about. I'd heard the term 'morning wood' and asked her what it meant – she explained it to me, but told me she always called it 'morning glory' because it meant she and my late Uncle Stewart were going to have a glorious start to the day."

"She available?"

"You couldn't handle her – you'd die happy though – Uncle Stewart did."

He cocked an eyebrow at her, "No…"

"Back seat of their car, at their 60th high school reunion."

He traced his fingers up her waist, "So, back seats…a family tradition."

"It's in the blood," she gasped as he ghosted his thumbs across her breasts, "And here you thought you were irresistible."

This morning the lovemaking was sweet and slow, unlike the frenzied coupling of last night. Reese loved how the sunlight played against her skin, making it shimmer against the dark red sheets. For the first time, she let him taste her. If he was intoxicated by Joss Carter before, now he was addicted, so much so that he growled in protest when she put her hands in his hair and asked him to stop.

"I want to come with you inside me," she whispered.

He slowly slid inside her, watching her face as their bodies began to dance together. She clung to him, crying out his name as she came, driving him to his own release. They lay together, sticky and warm for a long while, until Joss' stomach grumbled, making its own needs known.

She showed him how to use the coffee maker, and while the bagels _were_ like rocks, he had eggs and some fruit so they were able to make breakfast.

She didn't want him to escort her home. "I've got a few things to do first."

From his window, he watched her walk down the street. She didn't look back.

But she'd stayed. And probably not this week, but sometime in the future, he vowed, she stay again.


End file.
